Israeli gunboats on Thursday morning opened machinegun fire at Palestinian fishermen and their boats off the northwestern shores of Gaza City.
Local sources reported that Israeli gunboats randomly opened fire around fishing boats and chased them off the coast of al-Sudaniya area west of Gaza City.
Luckily no one was injured in the shooting attack but the intensity of gunfire forced all fishermen to stop working and go ashore.
Israeli gunboats are around Gaza fishermen almost every day harassing them shooting at them damaging their boats and making arrests. Sometimes fishermen are injured or killed during gunfire attacks.
Under the 1993 Oslo accords Palestinian fishermen are permitted to fish up to 20 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza. Over the past 18 years however Israel has reduced the fishing area gradually to a limit of three nautical miles as part of its blockade on Gaza.
But fishermen and human rights groups say that since the 2008-09 war in Gaza the Israeli navy has been regularly enforcing a limit even closer to the shore.
